Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos)
by Florian Pee
on
Dec 2, 2008 at 10:11:26 pm
Hi there
I´d like to animate contents of a newspaper:
A "real-world-shot" will be done and edited i FCPro.
Woman looking newspaper (top view), looking at pictures and adds, movement and animation will eventualy start to happen within a picture/part/frame of a page!
In order to animate parts of a moving image, i would then go to AE:
4-point tracking --> placing animations within that frame.
PROBLEM: To make it look more real, I would like to "bend" these added animations in the z-axis.
For example: if the woman turns a page oder bends it up, it will move t´wards the camera, shadow should be casted etc.
How can I simulate these movements of realfilm onto the AE-animations?
Re: Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos) by Dave LaRonde on Dec 2, 2008 at 11:10:32 pm
It sounds like you'd need to use a variety of techniques:
• A chroma-key colored spot in the newspaper where the new image goes
• Two or more tracking points in the chroma-key colored spot, for x-y tracking using AE, or a third-party plugin that can do x-y-z tracking
• 3D Warps by Zaxwerks to do the bending of the image to be inserted, which would also have to be animated
• A couple of chroma keys: one to place the image in the newspaper, and the other to create the shadows
• Animated masks in various spots
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos) by Dave LaRonde on Dec 2, 2008 at 11:19:22 pm
[Devon Brown]"Why would chroma keying be necessary or recommended over the 4-point tracking? "
Because the paper is going to bend and deform in places, and the area in which the new image will go will be one of those places, no doubt. 4-point tracking won't do the trick in a case like that.
To say nothing of the talent turning to the page that will contain the new image. That little part will get REAL sticky.
The shot as described is a right royal pain to pull off. Not much you can automate in this one, I fear....
Dave LaRonde
Sr. Promotion Producer
KCRG-TV (ABC) Cedar Rapids, IA
Re: Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos) by Bret Williams on Dec 2, 2008 at 11:51:55 pm
[Dave LaRonde]"Because the paper is going to bend and deform in places, and the area in which the new image will go will be one of those places, no doubt. 4-point tracking won't do the trick in a case like that. "
Neither will a blue square. However, the blue square will serve the purpose of only allowing the tracked image to appear in the blue area. You'd still have to track the square, either automated or by hand, but at least you won't have to mask it by hand when it gets covered by another page or an arm or hand, etc.
Re: Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos) by adam taylor on Dec 3, 2008 at 11:02:15 am
if you have the CS4 version of AE, then you could try using the Mocha for AE application that now comes supplied with AE. Its a planar tracker that is much more accurate and forgiving than a pixel tracker such as AEs 4 corner tracker.
I can't say if it would be better or not but its certainly a fantastic tool to have in your toolkit, and certainly worth checking out.
adam
Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK
Re: Animating a Newspaper (Real footage + Drawings/Photos) by Florian Pee on Dec 8, 2008 at 12:41:57 pm
Hello people,
thanks for all the good and quick responses, i will try both 4-point tracking and chroma keying.
i just installed CS4, so it might be better to use the MOCHA tracking add-on-program.
the frames where the newspaper is being turned, i would track by hand.
I might be able to try 3D-Warp, hopefully, it will work just with AE...
